Gary Oldman: "At the pace he was going, he'd be dead or institutionalized."

BarcelonaGary Oldman (London, 1958) used to sweat vodka. He explained this in an interview published in the The Hollywood Reporter, in which he opened up about the effects his addiction has had on his career. He's now been sober for 28 years and says he's in a good place thanks to quitting alcohol. He started to look around his environment, and it ended up getting out of hand: "If I were going at the pace I was, I'd be dead or institutionalized."

"You glamorize it, but you're only fooling yourself," he says. The actor recalls that his heroes—literary heroes, actors, athletes, musicians—were alcoholics and drug addicts, "tortured poets and artists that you remain with and want to emulate." Being where he is now, about to premiere the fifth season of Slow horses –the Apple TV series nominated for five Emmys including Best Actor for Oldman– is thanks to sobriety.

He says that putting himself in the shoes of Jackson Lamb, the protagonist of Slow horses, is glorious for his insulting humor. "People underestimate him and that plays to his advantage, and he doesn't care what other people think of him." Lamb is an MI5 spy who heads a team of "slow horses" – a translation of the series' title, which refers to the dysfunctionality of the agents Lamb leads. He is rude, dirty, smelly, and goes against the grain of how things are supposed to be. "He basically points the finger at the establishment. He smokes because it's frowned upon, otherwise he'd probably quit," Oldman explains to The Hollywood Reporter.

This is the first time the Hollywood actor has a leading role in a television series, and he's enjoying it. He says he likes getting back into the character's shoes because there's continuity in his development. He also enjoys reuniting with his colleagues on the set and loves the script by Mick Herron, the creator who has managed to "shake up the spy genre and introduce humor."

Oldman grew up in a working-class family and entered the acting world to escape other jobs. He says he wasn't opposed to it at home, and he didn't have the pressure of having to study to become a doctor or lawyer. "I started making a name for myself in the theater and didn't have any great ambitions for film or television beyond being able to work in different environments." He is aware that his success is largely due to "a devilish bit of luck," which placed him in the right place at the right time. It was thanks to the contrasting characters he plays in films. Sid and Nancy (1986) and Open your ears (1987) that put him on the map.